Big Little Lies Book Review — Liane Moriarty

When it comes to this Big Little Lies book review, I’ll be frank and upfront—the book wasn’t what I expected.

When I started Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, I expected a quick, easy-to-read, even fluffy story about a group of mom’s in suburbia. That wasn’t what I got at all.

Admittedly, the book was very quick and very easy to read, but it ended up being so much deeper than I initially expected. Despite some of the more ridiculous and absurd situations in the story, this book has a real message with real meaning. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.

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-Madeline is the feisty 40-year-old mother of three. On the back of the book, Madeline is described as “a force to be reckoned with,” and she certainly lives up to that description. She’s the leader of her tribe and the woman who isn’t afraid of the other moms. She wears her feelings—and her compassion—on her sleeve. She’d edgy and easy to like.
–Jane, a 24-year-old single mother, has recently moved to town with her five-year-old son, Ziggy. On the very first day of school, Jane and Ziggy get into a conflict with working mother Renata and her daughter, Amabella. Luckily for Jane, she has Madeline in her corner.
–Celeste is Jane’s long-time best friend. She’s the wealthy woman with the perfect marriage, the perfect family, and the perfect look. She turns heads wherever she goes, yet she lives with a secret that no one can guess at.

Big Little Lies Book Review: Liane Moriarty Shares Important Message

From the beginning, it’s obvious that Madeline, Jane and Celeste are each carrying their own secret crosses, known not even to one another. Initially, Jane comes to Madeline’s rescue when Madeline falls and twists her ankle in the middle of the street. Though Jane is the initial hero, it quickly becomes obvious that Jane needs Madeline more than Madeline needs Jane. Luckily for Jane, Madeline takes Jane under her wing and helps introduce Jane around the town.

Before long, Jane has joined with Madeline and her best friend, Celeste, to make a home for herself. For the first time in years, Jane feels like she has a place to call home. And yet, no one around her knows her real reasons to have moved in the first place. At the same time, no one knows Celeste’s secret, and no one truly understands Madeline’s internal struggle.

Jane is the first to reveal her struggles when, after several years of moving around the country, she tells Madeline what it is that has made her so restless and insecure for years. Suddenly, things begin to fall into place for Jane’s friends, and the ramifications are shocking.

Before long, it becomes obvious that the world is small and all of the ladies’ problems are interconnected in one way or another. In some ways, those problems are connected to the problems real women face in every day life. For us real-life, every day women, Moriarty has a message: You are not alone.

For me, Big Little Lies was Desperate Housewives meets Gone Girl. It has that dramatic, suburban soap opera feel mixed with just enough shocking psychological thriller to keep the reader on her toes.